Harrison pulls out of Cook fight and gives up his title

Scott Harrison's father and trainer Peter announced last night that his son has pulled out of Saturday's planned world featherweight title defence against Nicky Cook at the ExCeL Centre in London "on medical advice" after failing to satisfy the demands of a British Boxing Board of Control precautionary weigh-in.

Harrison said his son would also be relinquishing the World Boxing Organisation version of the title, which he has held for four years.

But the 29-year-old Scot has not fought for more than a year and twice pulled out of contests as his life outside the ring seemingly spiralled out of control. His well-publicised alcohol-related problems led to a split with his long-time manager, Frank Maloney, and Harrison is due to stand trial in Glasgow in February on a number of charges, including police assault.

Harrison's preparations for this fight had already been chaotic. On October 6, while training in the south of Spain, he was arrested and imprisoned in Malaga for more than five weeks amid allegations he had attempted to steal a car, assaulting its owner and a Spanish police officer.

His new manager, a Glasgow businessman Barry Hughes, admits to having spent around £75,000 securing Harrison's release on bail. If convicted either in Britain or Spain, Harrison would almost certainly have had his boxer's licence suspended but he could have faced Cook because no charges had been proved.

Harrison is understoood to have failed to attend a check weigh-in yesterday, when he would have been expected to weigh inside 9st 7lb to show he would be ready to weigh inside the 9st featherweight championship limit tomorrow. Mexico's Juan Manuel Márquez, who had already been named the interim champion by the WBO because of Harrison's inactivity, will be installed as the new champion.

Harrison-Cook was to have been screened on Saturday on ITV1, along with Amir Khan's latest contest, against the Frenchman Rachid Drilzane. A rematch of last year's meeting of the 2000 Olympic super-heavyweight champion, Audley Harrison, and Danny Williams will now top the bill.